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America's handling of COVID-19 proved unpopular around the world
Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira
Over the weekend, the daily case average in the U.S. rose to 120,000, skyrocketing 930 percent since mid-June, federal data showed. /Xinhua

Over the weekend, the daily case average in the U.S. rose to 120,000, skyrocketing 930 percent since mid-June, federal data showed. /Xinhua

Editor's note: Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira is a national thousand talent distinguished professor of public policy at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, and a professor of international business at Schwarzman College in Tsinghua. He is a former special economic advisor to the president of Brazil and former Brazilian minister of tourism, and minister of development, industry and foreign trade. He was also president of the World Investment Association – WAIPA. The article reflects the author's views, not necessarily those of CGTN. 

For many decades, the United States of America has enjoyed the reputation of having one of the most advanced medical research systems and the best public health policies in the world. There are heated debates regarding the nature of the healthcare system financing model (public or private), but what we have seen so far since the pandemic is a mixture of defective health policies, bad decisions, denialism and a very weak healthcare system that didn't put people first. Although the American leaders like to brag about having "the strongest health system model" in the world, they turned out to be one of the weakest in fighting against COVID-19.  

Since the onset of the pandemic, Washington has ignored the importance of virus testing and failed to actively fight the worsening pandemic or boost the economy. What's worse, the U.S. government shifted the blame to other countries and the World Health Organization (WHO), and began to relax exit controls. The U.S. government's irresponsible measures, lacking respect for human rights, have made itself lose the confidence and support of people around the world. CGTN think tank's latest online poll shows that 81.7 percent of people believe that "the U.S. government is not doing enough to fight the pandemic."

Following the World meters info and the data released by World Health Organization, the total number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. has increased to 638,798, with the nationwide confirmed cases reaching 37,736,986 on August 17. The U.S. has the worst record in the world. One expected the situation to get better after a change in the government, but that did not happen. 

With the spread of the Delta variant across the country, cases are still emerging at their highest rate in six months as they continue to tear. It is the United States who failed to respond to the pandemic domestically. Its administration's divisive attempts to politicize it have caused the death of so many innocent lives, hindering progress in efforts to contain the virus and undermining the global solidarity needed to do so.

The New York State Department of Health issued an order Monday requiring all healthcare workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 27. /Getty

The New York State Department of Health issued an order Monday requiring all healthcare workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 27. /Getty

All the flaws of the U.S. government have been seen and remembered by the people around the world. In the past, the U.S. promoted its values such as "respecting human rights" and "freedom and equality," and used them to disrupt the normal order of some countries and regions. 

In an online poll launched by a CGTN think tank in five languages – English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian – on platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, many netizens left similar comments. Some complained that the U.S. is provoking wars everywhere, which has seriously endangered the lives and safety of people in other countries.  

As a saying goes, "sooner or later, the truth comes to light." The U.S. government has gone too far from the values it claims to espouse with its disregard for life, its protection of the interests of the rich and neglect of the public health of the poor, and its violation of minority rights. 

Besides, with an individual and selfish approach, the U.S.government has done almost nothing to stop the pandemic around the world. Since they continued to allow U.S. citizens to travel around the globe without any testing, countries such as Israel, Korea and many in Latin America have reported thousands of cases from the U.S. 

Without any testing or regarding any policies, they continued the repatriation of illegal immigrants held in detention centers around the U.S. back to Latin American countries in large numbers, such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, Haiti and Brazil. On August 17, Fox News reported that over 7,000 COVID-19-positive immigrants were released in McAllen, a Mexico-Texas border city. 

Although the U.S. has declared internationally that they are fighting against COVID-19, they pursue "vaccine nationalism," ignoring the need for new vaccines in many developing countries, preventing the export of vaccines and putting it in an international moral dilemma. 

Only those who win people's hearts can enjoy abundant support, while those who damage people's interests can find little support in the world. In the COVID-19 pandemic, a variety of gaffes of the U.S. government show that they have torn apart the hypocritical veil and openly abandoned the values they preached in the past. More and more people have also realized that.  

What the United States should do now is to listen to the voices of the majority of Americans and people all over the world and follow the trend of history. We hope that the U.S. government will learn from its mistakes, take responsibility, put its people's lives first and cooperate with the international community in fighting the pandemic. 

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.) 

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